Marketmen deny Dulwich Hamlet on Saturday shutout

By Paula Griffin

Frustrating afternoon as Dulwich Hamlet fail to make the most of their opportunities before falling to sucker punch goal.

Dulwich Hamlet 0 Needham Market 1
Saturday 5th December 2015
Ryman League Premier Division

It was a frustrating Saturday afternoon for Dulwich Hamlet as they suffering a disappointing home defeat at the hands of Needham Market. Frustrating in that Dulwich Hamlet enjoyed most of the play but were unable to find the back of the net, whilst the opposition scored the only goal of the game from one of their very few chances. All credit though to Needham Market though, as they arrived with a set game plan and executed it to perfection.

In the first half of the encounter, too many shots from the Hamlet were wide of the mark. Ashley Carew had an 18th minute drive expertly tipped around the upright by the diving Danny Gay, the ‘keeper later saving low to his left from Albert Jarrett. However, these were to be the only two occasion that the Hamlet truly extended the Marketmen’s custodian. Dulwich’s best opening came eight minutes before the break when an inviting left-wing cross from Rhys Murrell-Williamson was allowed to zip across the face of the Needham Market goal without a player in Pink and Blue on hand to polish it off.

The second half followed a similar pattern with more wasteful finishing from the Dulwich Hamlet players. Needham Market were content to defend in numbers and just launch the occasional counterattack. However, it would be from one such break that they would grab what proved to be the only goal of the afternoon. An angled shot from Jordan Patrick took a deflection to loop over Phil Wilson with Jay Davies battling his way in to nod home at the far post. Ollie Mann later when close from another rare break as the Hamlet committed their endeavours to recovering the game, but in the last twenty minutes especially it was all one-way traffic towards Gay’s goal. Danny Waldren shot narrowly wide of the angle from 15 yards and in the 73rd minute a header from Ethan Pinnock was blocked amidst a mass of bodies on the goal line.

Later Rhys Murrell-Williamson frittered away a couple of clear openings. When a superb 30-yarder from Ashley Carew five minutes from time beat Gay’s leap only to crash back off the underside of the crossbar before bouncing back into play, somehow the Hamlet knew that fate had determined it would not be their day.

Dulwich Hamlet: Phil Wilson; Osei Sankofa (Albert Jarrett 29); Jordan Brown; Danny Waldren; Matt Drage; Ethan Pinnock; Nyren Clunis; Ashley Carew; Ryan Moss (Dean McDonald 72); Dan Sweeney (Damian Scannell 65); Rhys Murrell-Williamson
Subs not used: Jack Dixon; Mitchell Nelson

Needham Market: Daniel Gay; Keiran Morphew (Kemal Izzet 90); Darryl Coakley; Oliver Fenn; Ian Miller; Joe Whight; Luke Ingram (Michael Brothers 54); Callum Harrison; Oliver Mann; Jay Davies; Jordan Patrick (Adam Mills 76)
Subs not used: Sam Nunn; Nathan Munson

Goals: Needham Market: Jay Davies (59)

Attendance: 1,547